Moody’s Investors Service announced this afternoon that it has assigned a Aaa rating to Scarsdale’s $8.3 million in general obligation bonds and affirmed the Aaa rating on $16.1 million in outstanding debt.

Scarsdale is scheduled to sell $8.3 million in public improvement serial bonds next Wednesday. Proceeds will finance improvements to a water pump and firehouse.

Moody’s said in a statement that its Aaa rating “reflects the village’s sound financial position with strong fiscal management, affluent and sizeable suburban tax base, and below-average debt burden.”

The ratings company said the village’s challenge is to manage “within an environment of constrained revenue growth.”

Village Manager Alfred A. Gatta said Scarsdale is pleased to be able to maintain its Aaa rating. “Very few jurisdictions in New York state have that,” he said, adding that many with the rating are experiencing financial pressure and could lose it.

The funds will be used for rehabilitating the Reeves Newsome pump station, located on the border of Hartsdale by the Bronx River Parkway, Gatta said. The equipment in use there is about 50 years old and needs to be modernized. The work on the pump station has started already and should be done by this summer, he said.

The rest of the money will go toward renovations at Scarsdale’s Firehouse No. 1, located at Popham and Post roads, Gatta said. The work will include structural improvements and making the building larger and modern for the current-day fire apparatus (which are larger than they used to be) and firefighters (men and women). The repairs will start in late spring and are expected to be finished by the summer of 2015, he said.

Municipalities with higher bond ratings can get more favorable interest rates.

Moody’s said Scarsdale’s Aaa rating could be reduced if there is a significant reduction in reserves in the village and a material decrease in the tax base.

Cara Matthews is a member of The Journal News' Tax Team. She has worked as an Albany correspondent and she covered Putnam County government and politics. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them.